Musings on movies, television, music and more

The reviews are in on the 87th Academy Awards telecast, and it ain’t pretty. Neil Patrick Harris is receiving the worst reviews of his rather charmed career and the show’s ratings dropped 6 million from the previous year, when Ellen DeGeneres snapped her famous selfie.

Sia’s ‘Chandelier’ video generated some controversy from those who thought an 11-year-old girl dancing in a nude body suit was catnip for pedophiles.

That controversy died down pretty quickly, though, as people realized how friggin’ good the song was, and what a talented dancer little Maddie Ziegler was. It clearly wasn’t a stunt but a real work of art on both of their parts.

When R.E.M.’s 1998 album Up, their first without drummer Bill Berry, was met with mixed reviews, Michael Stipe said this in an interview: “If this record dropped out of the sky by a three-piece band that nobody had heard of, people would be in the street shouting at the top of their lungs, naked, about it.”

He was being overly defensive, but I could see his point. Established bands — especially great ones — are always measured against their own legacy, their finest moments.

Halfway through February, I’m finally ready to put 2014 to bed. I’ll spend the rest of this week writing about a trio of new releases.

When I heard that Bob Dylan’s next album would be a collection of obscure songs once performed by Frank Sinatra, I can’t say I was surprised, exactly. This is the man who put out an old-fashioned Christmas album five years ago. Nothing he does is unexpected, because he does whatever the hell he wants.